Developed from the F.ll, the Fokker F.lll had a fuselage of reduced length and increased width, with a cabin accommodating five passengers in upholstered comfort. The pilot was seated in an open cockpit offset to starboard, its rear recessed into the wing leading edge. The thick-section monoplane wing was cantilevered, the fixed cross-axle landing gear had single-wheel units and, by comparison with the F.ll, the rudder was of increased height.

The prototype, powered by a 138kW BMW IlIa engine, was flown at Schwerin at the beginning of April 1921 and on 14 April inaugurated KLM flights for the year. The type was also exhibited at the 1921 Paris Salon de I'Aeronautique where it met with a mixed reception as a result of Fokker's association with the German cause during World War I. Later, however, the F.lll became one of the most important European aircraft of the mid-1920s.

Of 31 F.IIIs built by Fokker, 12 were supplied to KLM and these were powered by the 179kW Armstrong Siddeley Puma engine. They were used heavily from 1921 onwards on routes linking Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Croydon, and also on the route from the Netherlands to Bremen and Hamburg. Other customers were the German Deutsche Luftreederei, which used
a Danzig-registered machine with a BMW Ila engine; and the Hungarian MALERT company which operated four F.llls with BMW IIIas and two with 172kW Hiero engines, these being used on routes from Budapest to Vienna and Graz. One F.lll was demonstrated in North America, but with limited success, only two aircraft being sold there.

Later Fokker-built F.llls, powered by 268kW Rolls-Royce Eagle engines, had the pilot's cockpit offset to port and some were completed as strut-braced parasol-wing monoplanes. The Deruluft airline, owned jointly by the USSR and Germany, acquired 10 of these Eagle-powered F.llls, and two were taken into service by KLM in 1922. The latter were re-engined with 298kW Gnome-Rhone Jupiter VI radial engines in 1925 and used on the Amsterdam-Paris route. In 1926 five surviving F.llls were sold to the Swiss Balair company and made a formation delivery flight to Basle on 28 April.

In 1923 production of the F.lll began in Germany, at the Staaken works, the Deutsche Aero Lloyd airline acquiring at least 20 of these so-called Fokker-Grulich F.lll aircraft. Some were powered by 186kW BMW IV engines, while others had Armstrong Siddeley Pumas. Several were re-engined subsequently with 239kW BMW Va engines, leading to the revised designation F.lllc.

When Deutsche Lufthansa was formed in 1926 it took over 16 F.llls then operating services between Hamburg and Amsterdam, and transferred them to short routes linking north German coastal resorts; they were later used on internal freight services.

Two F.llls were sold to British Air Lines Ltd in 1929, a company then based at Croydon Airport.

3-View

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A three-view drawing (592 x 811)

Specification

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MODEL

F.3

CREW

1

PASSENGERS

5

ENGINE

1 x Armstrong Siddeley "Puma", 179kW

WEIGHTS

Take-off weight

2000 kg

4409 lb

Empty weight

1200 kg

2646 lb

DIMENSIONS

Wingspan

17.62 m

58 ft 10 in

Length

11.07 m

36 ft 4 in

Height

3.66 m

12 ft 0 in

Wing area

39.1 m2

420.87 sq ft

PERFORMANCE

Max. speed

150 km/h

93 mph

Cruise speed

135 km/h

84 mph

Range

650 km

404 miles

Comments

Den Moran, 25.11.2013

Hi!I'm building/designing a Fokker F. model for r/c and would appreciate any information about this aircraft,please. I do not have a lot of info about the various airline colour schemes, or the registration numbers and decals. If anyone can help me,thank you very much. Den

Niklas Oberfeld, 16.03.2012

The volume "Airliners between the wars 1919-1939" from the Blandford series "Pocket encyclopedia of World Aircraft in Color" shows a Fokker F.III H-NABH from KLM with a cockpit on top of the wing just behind the passenger compartment. Was that a special sub-version or did the illustrator misinterpret his sources?

Rodney Graham, 14.03.2008

This plane was the first 'large' aircraft flown by Noel Wien in Alaska. He was the first full time bush pilot in Alaska and flew more than anyone else. Before the years of 1925-26 he flew mostly the New Standard, a rugged biplane with capacity for three or four people but out in the elements w the pilot. He flew the F.3 a few times only and left to start his own company in Nome leaving Fairbanks behind. His adventures are legendary.